Overview

Included in degrees & certificates

• 273

Prerequisites

• PH1322

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will:

• Understand the main characteristics of the solar cycle, including how it is monitored and its effect on solar emissions and activity.
• Describe and differentiate between different types of solar activity – specifically, flares, radio bursts, coronal mass ejections, and proton events.
• Be able to describe the source and structure of the solar wind and its relation to space weather.
• Describe the role of Earth’s magnetic field in determining the local space environment and calculate the magnitude of the field as a function of altitude and latitude using the simple dipole approximation.
• Describe and differentiate between the K, Kp, ap, Ap, Dst, and AE magnetic indices.
• Define, characterize, and locate key features of the magnetosphere, including the bow shock, magnetopause, magnetotail, plasmasphere, radiation belts, auroral oval, and polar cap.
• Know the important constituents of the thermosphere and be able to calculate their density as a function of height using the hydrostatic equilibrium approximation.
• Know the factors that affect satellite drag, including sources of environmental variability.
• Identify the regions of the ionosphere and be able to describe key phenomena such as: the equatorial anomaly, equatorial scintillation, short-wave fade, polar cap absorption, and the aurora.
• Use Snell’s law to demonstrate the relationship between electron density, angle of incidence, and signal frequency as it relates to the transmission and reflection of radio signals in the ionosphere.
• Describe and differentiate between space environmental impacts to spacecraft exteriors including: MMOD damage, atomic oxygen and UV exposure, contamination, and surface charging.
• Describe and differentiate between the effects of penetrating radiation on spacecraft components, including: single event upsets, total ionizing dose, and deep dielectric charging.